tears for fears and that girl from bananarama

Another shameful handling of a Lufthansa flight cancellation at Bristol airport. So basically I was supposed to take the usual Friday evening flight out of Bristol. Obviously I failed to impress the weather gods so that they decided to send some fog over to the airport in Bristol affecting most flights. The issue being not so much taking off but landing. Some smaller planes simply lack the right equipment to land in such conditions. I was warned already during check in to check the screens for announcements so I did just that. The KLM flight took off on time and the Lufthansa flight was counting down properly with messages like “boarding in 30 minutes”, boarding in 25 minutes”, and so on while another plane got redirected to Cardiff airport and some others were announced to be delayed. I got informed at the information desk that our plane was indeed in the air and it would land in 10 minutes. Then right on schedule the Lufthansa flight status changed to “boarding shortly at gate 8” so that is where I went. I informed my parents that they shouldn’t worry, turned on my ipod and breakdanced to the waiting area in front of gate 8 in great expectation. Then suddenly the sign went from “boarding shortly at gate 8” to “flight has been cancelled”.

Having experienced a plane cancellation I was very much looking forward at the chaos outside at the ticketing desk so I was not surprised when I arrived at the usual scene. Passengers arguing with the hopelessly understaffed Lufthansa ticketing desk while airport personnel was handing out checked in luggage. One lady behind the counter, two in front of it trying to explain it and one coordinator running around talking to various airport personnel.

I have to say, at this moment I was furious not because of the cancellation but because of the useless and stupid information we have gotten – or not gotten – on time. After about an hour of queuing and fighting off an angry bus driver who was supposed to take everybody to a nearby hotel for the night I managed to reach the desk and rebook my ticket to fly home from London Heathrow instead of from Bristol in the morning. This way I got a direct flight instead of one via Amsterdam. I was ready to take the train when one of the – now more relaxed – ladies offered to organise me a taxi to London. So in the end I was given a taxi ride worth around 200 GBP to the Park Inn in Heathrow, where they gave me a room, free dinner and a bed to sleep in.

In all fairness the handling of the situation was not so bad as last time when they had to cancel the flight and I was quite happy with the solution. I also met another friendly taxi driver called John who took me to Heathrow telling me all about the singer of Tears for Fears living in his mansion just outside Bath and a girl from Bananarama who was actually from Bristol. John used to work in the British Army travelling the world before he became a driver. He told me how he liked his job a lot as he meets lots of different people.

We arrived in Heathrow just after nine, found the hotel and I managed to check in via phone for my early morning flight talking to a highly entertaining giggly person on the phone. Just what I needed before going to bed. Good night!!!